When Arosha was little I sang a lot to him. I can not only carry a tune, but have a pretty pleasant voice as well.

As he got older, he started to protest my singing with an exception of a very limited amount of songs: mainly Kalyhanka — lullaby in Belarussian language and Goluboi Vagon — a song from the cartoon about Cheburashka. I have to be honest, it hurt my feelings a little, because I always thought that we’ll be singing a whole bunch of songs together when he gets older, but it seems that this won’t be the case.

There are very few songs that he likes, and to my surprise he really took liking to the “Bravo” band. The first song that he heard was “7000 над землёй” — I think I was singing at some point, and instead of objecting, he kept asking for more. When I showed him a YouTube video clip of the song, he must have listened to it 10 times in a row. His two other favorites of the band are “Black Cat” and “Orange Tie”.

Anyhow, yesterday he decided to sing it to us with guitar “accompaniment”. The video is not his best attempt, but it’s hard to catch him in the act. Arosha’s grandparents were present when he decided to give us this cute performance, so we all applauded. He really loved it!

Last Saturday we went to the Bronx Zoo. It was the third time for Danya and I, and the second time for Aroshka. We had such a great time!

The Zoo itself is very big and has a lot of animals. It’s on the expensive side compared to Staten Island or Brooklyn ones (cost us $15 for parking plus $30 for each adult), and it’s a pretty long drive for us (1+ hrs), but it was totally worth it.

We arrived there shortly after 12 p.m. and proceeded to watch giraffes, peafowl, hyenas, and some other animals. We then took a shuttle ride, which Aroshka absolutely loved, and went to see gorillas.

We did not take a stroller for Arosha — he actually did not use stroller a single time in the last few months, but took his beloved scooter instead. It was funny how many times people commented on how cool his method of transportation was.

There were a lot of people, including lots of children of all ages. Saturdays are probably busiest at places like this, so it is to be expected.

We then went to look at lions, okapis, bears. At this point everyone got pretty hungry, so we stopped for a short lunch break. Arosha and I got vanilla ice-cream, and Danya ate hot dog and some french fries. Aroshka also ate a banana and some carrots which I took with me.

We wanted to show Arosha elephants and rhinos, and the only way to do it was to take a Wild Asia monorail tour. The line was long, but we’ve decided to wait. Danya was standing in line at all times, and Aroshka and I were free to move around. Arosha managed to put one of his feet into deep water, so his shoe and sock were soaking wet. I took the dry sock from his other foot, but was not sure what else I can do to fix this. Danya suggested that we put a plastic bag on the sock, and then put a wet snicker on. This combination worked well, and Aroshka did not complain about this adjustment a single time.

So after about an hour wait, we finally boarded a train. The tour itself was not long — probably 15-20 minutes. We saw Pzhewalski’s horse (which Danya identified right away), a tiger, different kinds of deer, gaur (world’s largest wild cattle), red panda, Asian elephants and a rhino. It was a nice tour, and I am glad we took it. I don’t think that I ever saw a rhinoceros before.

By the end of the tour Arosha was pretty tired, so we decided to take a shuttle back to the parking lot. Unfortunately, there was also a line, so we figured that it’ll be quicker to get there on foot. It was a good decision, since we passed by a bug carousel, and it was a huge hit with Arosha.

Despite his exhaustion and a prospect of another wait line, he definitely wanted to take a ride. Luckily, the line was moving pretty quickly, so soon enough he mounted a big green-and-yellow caterpillar. You should have seen how excited he was when then carousel started moving! He really-really loved it! When it stopped, he did not want to leave, but the stuff member told us that if we wanted to take another ride, we’ll have to wait in line again. I guess, rules are rules, so we complied. Aroshka definitely wanted to do it again, so we waited.

After the second carousel ride, we resumed our course to the parking lot. We stopped by the lions again, and were rewarded by a magnificent roar.

We left the Zoo close to 5 p.m., and Arosha fell asleep in the car. We concluded our day by getting some take out Uzbek shish-kebab.

Currently I am 20 and a half weeks pregnant.

I feel good. I still get more tired than pre-pregnancy, but other than that, I barely notice that my body is actively assisting in creating a little human being among other things. I still fit into majority of my clothes, although many pants won’t zip anymore. I told a few people on a playground today that I’m pregnant, and they sounded genuinely surprised, which means that to majority of the population I still don’t look all that pregnant. I am not exactly sure how much weight I gained, since I forgot how much I weighted 20.5 weeks ago, but it is somewhere around 7-10 pounds.

I started to feel some movement, although very faintly and very rarely, in the last few days. My OBGYN told me that my placenta is on top, so it cushions the baby’s kicks, and therefore impedes my feeling the baby. I don’t mind.

We are somewhat confused about the name. I always thought that if I ever have a daughter, I’ll name after my grandma. But last week my sister told me that my grandmother was actually not too fond of her own name, so now I am not sure if we should use it anymore. I can’t think of a name that I like more though, so for now it is still our number one option.

Danya and I went to the ultrasound last Friday. Everything looks good, although they were not able to get very good images of her heart due to her position. We even walked around for half and hour, and I drank some coffee and a mango smoothie, but that did not help. We decided not to come back, since I think that if something was seriously wrong, they would have seen it regardless. We did not get any 3D pictures as was the case with Aroshka, but since they are far from reality anyhow, I am not even upset about it.

Looking ahead, I am a little worried about Aroshka adjusting to our family’s new addition. He is spoiled by my attention, and naturally, it will sharply decrease. I just hope he’ll handle it well and won’t be too stressed out. I actually think that a bit less attention will do him good, but I guess only time will tell how well it will go. We were thinking about enrolling him in some daycare, but he starts crying and tells us that he does not want to go when we offer him to try. I know he is very attached to me, and I just don’t want to hurt him by forcing him to do something that he is not ready for.

We had such a wonderful weekend. The weather is getting better — it gets to high 60s during the day — so it’s a pleasure to be outside.

We spent almost four hours on a playground by our building on Friday morning. Aroshka played with his bff Evelina, and he was just so happy, so joyful, that it melted my heart. Evelina was acting strangely around him in the last few weeks — did not want to play with him and was saying that she was scared of him. I don’t know what was the cause of it, but when she changed her mind, he could not be more excited to be around her.

And in the evening, Aroshka, us and Alex went to Brooklyn Heights. Danya wanted to take a few pictures of the Freedom Tower, which is near its completion, before its ready. He and Alex went on the promenade, and Aroshka and I went to a small, but very cozy playground.

Danya’s pictures did not come out well because of the haze and not ideal lighting conditions, but Aroshka had a lot of fun. There were a lot of toys, a big sandbox, a bicycle, and other new and exciting things. There were two benches colored like taxis, so he made up a whole story about us driving to the airport, flying to Dominican Republic, and then staying there in the hotel (the metal patch on the ground was our airplane, and the area adjacent to the slides was our hotel room).

Afterwards we ate at some diner, and went home.

On Saturday Aroshka spent most of the day with his grandparents, while Danya and I took care of some chores and then had a dinner at Al Di La. We have not been to that restaurant in almost three years — there are always lines, and up until yesterday we did not want to waste time waiting. The food was nice (I ordered risotto as always), but it was quite noisy inside. We came back home just in time to put Aroshka to sleep. Even though he had a wonderful day with Danya’s parents, he still was just so happy to see us. You should have seen that big smile, and the way he ran to hug us. He told us that he missed us very much and that he loves us very much. He is just so sweet, and I just hope that he will always have such a pure heart.

And today we went to another playground in the morning, and he played with his other friend Danielka for over an hour, and then Danya picked us and his dad up and we went to Bay Ridge (after washing our car — we wanted to show Aroshka machines that wash cars).

First, we walked down the pier, where Danya took a few pictures of the Freedom Tower again (but it was super-hazy again). And then we went for a walk to a Narrows Botanical Garden which was just a few blocks away. There were a lot of blooming flowers, mostly tulips, in the garden, and Aroshka wanted to smell them all. He was like a little bee, sticking his nose in one flower after another. His face was covered in pollen afterwards. He also enjoyed just running around in the grass, especially up and down a little hill. We spent total of 4 hours outside today, and he got so tired by the time we got home, that he even refused to have lunch and went straight to bed.

So this was our weekend. We are going to Linka’s Birthday party later today (after Arosha’s nap). I hope it’ll be fun too!

А мы болеем. Сначала закашлял и засопливил Арошка. Потом я. Потом Даня. Потом д. Боря. Мы с Арошкой уже ничего (есть сопли с кашлем, но терпимо), а вот у бедного Дани уже 6-й день держится температура. Он даже начал принимать антибиотики, хотя мы стараемся их по возможности избегать.

И весна у нас какая-то совершенно холодная. Сегодня последний день марта, а гулять мы до сих пор ходим в зимних сапохаг, тёплых куртках, шапках и иногда даже перчатках.

Несмотря на болезнь мы с Арошкой почти каждый день ходили гулять. Температура у него была только один день, а у меня её вообще не было, хоть чувствовала я себя преотвратительно. Так как мне не хотелось заражать ни в чём неповинных детей на площаке, мы ходили гулять в нелюдные места, где у Арошки не было близкого контакта с детьми — например, на Plum Beach (это вместе с дедушкой, сама я туда боюсь ходить) или на Emmons Avenue покормить лебедей.

Где-то месяц назад Арошка очень хорошо освоил езду на самокате. С тех пор наша коляска стоит дома, а гулять мы ходим исключительно с самокатом. Я, конечно, только за, хотя в магазин за продуктами ходить нам стало значитально сложнее. Всё же езда на самокате, по-моему, намного полезнее, да и веселее для Арошки, чем езда в коляске.

Поначалу я очень боялась дорог, перекрёстков, всяких неровностей в асфальте, ну и конечно же пешеходов. Но со временем мы оба стали чувствовать себя намного увереннее. Конечно, бывают до сих пор и падения, но Арошка знает, что надо остановиться перед проезжей частью (да и я всегда напоминаю), умеет ловко обьзжать пешеходов и трещины, а перед особо большими препятствиями просто тормозит и слазит с самоката. Тормозить он почему-то предпочитает ногой о землю, и из-за этого напоминает мне фигуриста, хотя как работает тормоз он давно прекрасно разобрался. Иногда он любит ехать быстро, а иногда останавливается перед каждым домом, поднимает каждую палочку и камушек, трогает каждый гидрант и машину… Вобщем, номральный любопытный ребёнок.

Иногда перед выходом на прогулку, Арошка зовёт меня:
– Ну пошли, моя красавица!

Вобщем, хочется чтобы поскорее все пришли в норму, и чтобы весна всё же началась и в нашей части мира.

А еще пока Ароша болел и мы больше обычного сидели дома, мы с ним занимались разными “проектами”. Первый раз в его жизни (и первый раз для меня в Америке) мы пекли печенье. Сам процесс ему очень понравился, а вот от результата он почему-то не был в восторге. “Не нравится мне это печенье” — таков был вердикт эксперта, хотя и Дане, и его родителям печенье пришлось по вкусу.

Еще я наконец-то заказала клей и цветную бумагу с Амазона, и мы сделали с ним несколько картинок — бабочку (наклеили на неё пластилин с фольгой), веточку вербы (наклеили вату и кинву по краям), яблоньку (вырезали из бумаги траву, яблоки, облако, солнце и цветы и всё это наклеили) и рыбку (наклеили “чешуйки” из пластилина, макаронные ракушки и еще всякую всячину). Нам очень пригодился набор идей и с заготовками рисунков, который прислала Арошке в подарок тётя Люда. Арошкины работы висят у нас на холодильнике, и он с гордостью их всем показывает.

А еще Арошка просто обожает 4-ю серию “Ну Погоди!”. Причём не весь мультфильм, а только первые пару минут. “Как волк бежал” называет его Арошка. Волк там бежит под музыку, и эту мелодию, а вернее первые три звука “па-па-па” Ароша обожает напевать во время собственного бега. В последние пару дней как никогда хочется жить в своём доме — Арошка бегает тяжело, со всей силы вбивая пятки в пол, да и кричит довольно громко. Вобщем, много такого весеья мы ему позволить не можем — соседи… А жаль.

Сегодня укладываю Арошу спать.
– Мама, а у нас зайцы водятся?
– Да. Ну, не в городе, конечно, но где-то в лесу наверняка водятся.
– Я хочу найти зайчика и взять его домой.
– Ароша, а зачем тебе зайчик?
– Морковкой кормить.
– Ну, у нас же есть Шублик…
– Мамочка, ну пожалуйста, ну давай заведём зайчика. Ну так хочется! Ну пожааааалуйста.

К сожалению, я редко записываю высказывания Ароши, но он очень рассудительный ребёнок. И говорит очень хорошо, хоть и не всё выговаривает.